---
title: Now a large flock of birds seek food in that swamp in the daytime, r… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Now a large flock of birds seek food in that swamp in the daytime, returning to that forest-grove at eventide to roost. Who acts: large flock. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 11, sentence 33

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Now a large flock of birds seek food in that swamp in the daytime, returning to that forest-grove at eventide to roost.

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**Who acts:** large flock · **What happens:** seek, return, roost · **To what, where:** food, swamp, eventide

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (large flock), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:11:36
# text = Now a large flock of birds seek food in that swamp in the daytime, returning to that forest-grove at eventide to roost.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
7	seek	seek	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	swamp	swamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	daytime	daytime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	returning	return	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
19	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	grove	grove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	eventide	eventide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	roost	roost	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | present | a large flock of birds | food |  | that swamp in the daytime | now |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent food=Theme in swamp=Location |
| 2 | **return** | gerund | a large flock of birds *not said here* |  |  | eventide |  | to that forest grove *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to grove=Result |
| 3 | **roost** | to-infinitive | a large flock of birds *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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